Published June 3, 2024

Staff and volunteers at BMP and Memphremagog hospitals are wearing these sunflowers to show they are able to serve patients in English. Photo courtesy of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS. 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sunflowers are popping up at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins (BMP) Hospital and Memphremagog Hospital. Employees and volunteers who are willing and able to serve patients and their families in English are wearing crocheted sunflowers on their badges.

The sunflower initiative is a joint pilot project of the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital Foundation, the Memphremagog Hospital Foundation, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS and individual employees and volunteers who decide to wear the sunflower. According to the Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN), a provincewide advocacy network for access to health care in English in the regions, similar programs exist at hospitals in the Gaspé and Cote-Nord regions, and in Prince Edward Island, where flowers are used to identify French-speaking staff. 

Caroline Van Rossum is the point person for English services at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS. She said the CIUSSS obtained survey data which showed that English speakers in the Townships “didn’t always feel comfortable” asking for service in their first language.

Because BMP is not an officially bilingual hospital, English words can’t be used in signage, hence the decision to use a visual symbol, Van Rossum explained. A wordless symbol is also easier to understand for young children and people who have trouble reading. “The challenge now is making sure it’s well known, so [staff and volunteers] decide to wear it and patients know what it represents,” Van Rossum said. She said it was hard to know, this early in the project, whether the sunflowers made English-speaking patients more at ease, but that was the goal.

Francis Laramée, executive director of the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital Foundation, said the sunflowers indicate to patients that a staff member is comfortable serving patients in English, and allow non-English-speaking staff to easily find a bilingual colleague when necessary.

Across the two hospitals, according to Van Rossum, 1,300 staff and volunteers have chosen to attach the flowers to their badges. “Anyone who wants to can wear a sunflower, and we’re seeing more and more each day,” Laramée said.

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